The Secret to Managing Multiple Complex Passwords

While it’s hard to keep track of a list of passwords for each website you use, a good password manager can be the solution to storing all your usernames and generating passwords for different sites while maintaining security of your information. LastPass is a great extension you can download for your web browser which enables you to keep all your passwords and sensitive information in one location while using one master password to unlock everything.

Benefits

Some benefits of using LastPass offers is a password manager that acts as a secure vault for storing all your passwords which saves and auto-fills your information upon a login prompt from a website. Another notable feature is that anything you save on one device will be available to use on all your other devices. You can also add different types of sensitive or identification information such as addresses, credit cards, bank account, driver’s license, passport, social security number, insurance and health, Wi-fi, and much more. In addition, you can also give access to this information to those you trust such as family members or relatives for emergencies.

With all these functions for keeping track of your sensitive information, it may seem a bit risky to entrust all this information online. For example, if someone were to know your master password, they would be able to access all your information including all your saved passwords for various sites, credit card, and bank account. However, LastPass has additional functions which take it step beyond to secure your information is protected through multiple layers of authentication.

There are the multi-factor authentication features which requires you to prove your identity through an extra login method. This can be done through generating a verification code to your smartphone, or a request for access through notifications or entering values from a spreadsheet of numbers. You can also control which devices and smartphones have access to your LastPass account which uses a unique identifier to track the devices. Every time you log into a mobile device, the phone’s unique identifier will be placed on the list of the devices allowed access. You can also restrict access to certain devices by disabling them in the mobile option.

Best Practices

Some best practices to keep your passwords and information secure is to use an extra step or layer of protection by using a multi-factor authentication. You should also keep your passwords lengthy which will increase the time it takes for a hacker to run through all possible combinations to crack a password. For example, it may only take them a couple hours to crack an eight letter password, whereas that time can increase substantially to years beyond a lifetime to guess a 20 letter password.

Instead of following the recommended method of mixing upper and lower case, numbers, and symbols which only makes it harder for you to remember and easier to hack, use a phrase to increase the length of your password. For example, the phrase ‘The greed would become the trumpet heralding hell’. It can be lyrics of a song and as long as you can remember it, you can shorten the letter of each word (tgwbtthh) and add in a word to the end of it that is lengthy like chrysanthemum (tgwbtthhchrysanthemum). This will increase the chances of making it much harder to hack your passwords while making it easy to remember.

How it Compares to Traditional Password Management

Using a password manager offers much more utility and flexibility when managing and keeping track of your passwords. You are able to secure your passwords with another layer of protection and keep everything stored under layers of encryption that only you have access to. In addition, it also has multiple features and functions that can assist in generating stronger passwords, accessibility on multiple devices, easy login process, and levels of security to ensure your information is only accessible to you. Ultimately if you don’t want to pay the price of mistakenly losing your information to the wrong hands, use a password manager to reduce that risk.